At Bottega Veneta, an Exploration of Transformed Materials
Matthieu Blazy's vision for fall 2024 called for fabric experimentation that was endlessly inspiring.
Bottega Veneta’s creative director Matthieu Blazy is known for his undying love—and knack—for trompe l’oeil material techniques, having famously put leather slacks that looked exactly like jeans on Kate Moss in 2022. So naturally, his fall 2024 collection encompassed surprising fabric explorations that were endlessly inspiring, alongside some ultra-classic and highly wearable pieces.
Among some of the most exciting garments in the coed collection were dresses that looked distressed and shredded from far away—but upon closer inspection, turned out to be created using careful fringing techniques. (These pieces closed the quietly impactful collection.) Other highlights included the gowns, which looked simple on top and over-the-top on the bottom—blooming, exploding into a monster of fluffed and feathered fringe below. Black-and-white spiral sweaters shaped like armor provided an op art celebration for the eye in a collection that was mostly without prints. And, as pleated yellow-and-red skirt sets moved down the runway, each one revealed a dreamy kind of kinetic movement that verged on cinematic.
A good portion of the collection focused on those very wearable, everyday shapes and silhouettes Blazy loves, albeit with an extreme luxury spin. Coats were oversize with rounded shoulders, or in flattened wool 2-D shapes. There were plenty of beautiful brown leather coats, black leather flared dresses, and popped collars. Every couple of looks offered up a little twist; a model might be carrying two bags, or wearing a skirt over a pair of pants.
This was a pragmatic collection focused on wearable clothing with a slightly artistic bent, but fantasy still manifested in pieces you had to look at twice to fully understand. That kind of cheeky intellectualism, which came through in the reinterpretation of the materials, became the point of Bottega Veneta’s fall 2024 vision. Surprising and surreal touches keep Blazy’s designs grounded in a world that often seems divided between extreme commercial wearability and high-fashion gimmick.
